Exploding A Myth Using The Cross-Correlation Function

My last three posts on independence of measure seem to have gone down well with some folk, though I do appreciate how much this issue can mangle the brain! If I were to speak as bluntly and plainly as possible it would be to say all manner of nonsense is being uttered by all manner of expert who all clearly dozed off at the back of the stats class at the point when the lecturer raised the subject. This means we are swimming in analysis after analysis that offer conclusions that may be as sound as stating children shrink as they age (see post dated 16/11/21).

To give a flavour of how deep the crisis goes we may see the virus spreading with folk getting ill, we may see more and more tests being done, and we may see more and more positive results. We may jump to the conclusion that more virus means more tests means more confirmed cases but even this most fundamental understand might easily be invalid, as incredible as it seems. 

Imagine for one moment that there is no link between virus le…